Other ways you can help:
We are always seeking images of movie theatres and San Francisco neighborhoods
from home movies, amateur films, and family photographs. Contact us!

STRAND is shot on 16mm film. If you have any unused raw stock of reasonable
age, donate it to the production.

Filmmaker Statement

At this point in our history, movies touch everyone’s lives. We
are surrounded by them. Everyone can name their three favorite films; anyone
can describe a great moviegoing experience they’ve had. But aside
from the novelties of drive-ins and 3-D films, there are very few documentaries
about the WAY films were seen over the years. While several studies of
filmgoing can be found in print, notably Douglas Gomery’s “Shared
Pleasures,” STRAND: A Natural History of Cinema examines this fascinating
history through the medium itself. Moviegoing is a rare experience, an
unusual blend of social interaction and private fantasy, in an environment
as varied as the films themselves. Unlike live theatre, a film doesn’t
change: yet over time, we the viewer change, giving a motion picture a
renewed life with each revisit. Some deepen our understanding, some are
a fantasy life to inhabit for a few hours, some barely deserve a single
viewing.

I have chosen to focus on the repertory era because I believe how we feel
about films today owes everything to that period. As STRAND will make clear,
until roughly the late 50’s one could rarely see a movie that was
4 years old, let alone 40. Greta Garbo was legendary but you couldn’t
see her films. And “Citizen Kane”? You could only read about
it, or at best, see it in truncated form on late night TV. The Repertory
movement saved films from the netherworld of ubiquitous Late Late Shows,
where they were panned-and-scanned and chopped to fit a time slot with
several commercial breaks. Rep made it possible to see these films as they
were meant, in a public environment, bringing the classics to life and
creating new ones in the process. And created a demand which has made the
home video market possible.

By selecting a single location--San Francisco—STRAND describes in
better detail the universal subject of theatres and moviegoing. And by
including interviews with geographers and urban thinkers who discuss intertwining
topics like public space, rampant development, and social contact, it extends
beyond a mere historical survey. I believe the transformation of the American
city during this post-war period has implications for our modern, disconnected
way of life. A time priding itself on progress allowed moneyed developers
to decimate vibrant, diverse urban communities in order to build glass
towers. An era that worshipped the automobile did so at the expense of
safe streets and reliable, affordable public transit. Combining these issues
create a fascinating film with broad appeal.

The Work In Progress clip I am submitting to IFP is meant to show the
film’s visual style, while giving a sense of its contents. The first
portion addresses the topics of passing time and the cinematic experience
with strong examples of the film’s visual aesthetic, including Rob
Christiansen’s original compositions for the film. The second portion
is a rougher “unedited” segment, meant only to give a flavor
of the topic of repertory cinema through some of the interviews conducted
thus far.